Sunday, November 7, 2010

The Wedding of Rebecca and Tom

Hello good friends. Not our normal post here, as we would like to let everyone know that on Noveber 6, 2010 we got married.

arriving at the Ratcliff's

The Officiant, John Erb

John is a good friend who made wine with Tom for many years in the Finger Lakes region of New York state. He is also a Catholic deacon with an anti-establishment bent.

John 18:37 Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice."

John said he wished to express how he felt that we were living, rather than simply speaking a life of caring for the earth, living a life of love outside the status quo, and sharing our life with the community.

the wedding procession with flowergirls Pearl and Josephine

Here Comes the Bride

First Reading:Not sure, but we feel that this may be a true story.

Excerpt from Aristophanes's Speech from Plato's SymposiumTranslated by Benjamin Jowett

Aristophanes professed to open another vein of discourse; he had a mind to praise Love in another way, unlike that of either Pausanias or Eryximachus. Mankind, he said, judging by their neglect of him, have never, as I think, at all understood the power of Love. For if they had understood him they would surely have built noble temples and altars, and offered solemn sacrifices in his honour; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done: since of all the gods he is the best friend of men, the helper and the healer of the ills which are the great impediment to the happiness of the race. I will try to describe his power to you, and you shall teach the rest of the world what I am teaching you.

… the primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and the same number of feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely alike; also four ears, two privy members, and the remainder to correspond. He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased, and he could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on his four hands and four feet, eight in all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this was when he wanted to run fast.

Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an attack upon the gods. Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. Should they kill them and annihilate the race with thunderbolts, as they had done the giants, then there would be an end of the sacrifices and worship which men offered to them; but, on the other hand, the gods could not suffer their insolence to be unrestrained. At last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way. He spoke and cut men in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved for pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair …

Each of us when separated, having one side only, like a flat fish, is but the tally-half of a man, and he is always looking for his other half. And such a nature is prone to love and ready to return love, always embracing that which is akin to him. And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together, and yet they could not explain what they desire of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse, but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment.

There is not a man of them who when he heard the proposal would deny or would not acknowledge that this meeting and melting into one another, this becoming one instead of two, was the very expression of his ancient need.

And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love.

with our witnesses, Jessica and James

Second Reading:Readings from our journal that we are trying to keep. We looked back at the days before our engagement to see if there was anything that prompted it.

Congratulations and many blessings to both of you!!! I am so happy for you. Also, thank you for sharing the readings and pictures with us. I especially loved the journal entries. You are living a good life. I love your life. It was a lovely wedding and very much Rebecca and Tom. Love from Della and Jim

We're so happy for both of you. You are so great for each other and now it can just continue to be great! Jeff, Mom and I celebrated your wedding this afternoon with a glass of wine! Can't wait to see more pictures at Thanksgiving. We love you both so much! Jeff, Sally, Nina, Jonah & Ryan

Best Wishes and Congratulations! John told me every detail. Your wedding day sounded so wonderful and now I can see that it was in the pictures!You are such a great couple to whom I wish nothing but life's best - now and happily ever after!!!Mary Ann